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Giant Opportunity

The beautiful stench of franchise-altering trades is in the air! Oh yeah, that’s right – trades baby!

Well not in Buffalo, but trades none-the-less!

Earlier today the New York Giants acquired Rams linebacker Alec Ogletree and a seventh-round pick in 2019 – giving up their fourth and sixth round picks in 2018. You’re thinking Nate, why does this matter at all? How does this affect the Bills in making a franchise-altering trade? This article sucks!

Hear me out.

But let me first start by saying that I’m so sorry Giants fan, honestly. You have one of the rare opportunities to draft second overall and select a quarterback to replace future Hall of Famer Eli Manning. You’re on the doorstep. You don’t have to trade future first round picks packaged with several other picks or assets to move up. You’re just there, sitting perfectly.

The trade today now leaves the Giants with just over $13 million in salary cap space for 2018. It also leaves them with only five remaining draft picks this April. That’s an extraordinarily low amount of assets to use to fill the remaining part of the roster. A roster with limited depth and a ton of money locked up in their defensive line and aging quarterback.

Let’s be honest, this trade doesn’t make a whole ton of sense unless you know, you plan on using that second overall pick to get yourself a host of picks and potentially a roster player or other assets. I mean, that’s the only way this trade makes sense.

That’s where Brandon Beane and the Bills come in.

Let’s first start by stating the obvious. Beane worked under Giants general manager Dave Gettleman – by all accounts they had a great working relationship in Carolina. This is an obvious help me help you situation, right?

The Bills desperately need a franchise quarterback and the Giants just declared draft pick bankruptcy! There’s a big “for sale” sign at the top of the draft and for those who have been worried sick about who the Bills could potentially find as trade partners; this trade sounds the dinner bell.

I know, I didn’t mention how the Bills would get there but I don’t care. I had reservations about the Bills trading up. I really thought from the start the Giants would take Eli’s successor. Why the heck wouldn’t you? But the trade today literally makes that impossible. They just can't use the remaining four picks they’d have after taking a quarterback to fill the multiple holes on that roster.

They’re now all in on Eli. All the power to them, thanks for playing.

This is why you trade back in 2017. This is why you sign the likes of Vontae Davis and Chris Ivory before the official league year to preserve potential compensatory picks in 2019 in case they’d need to potentially trade a pick next season to get the deal done.

It’s a lot. It’s multiple picks. It’s multiple first round picks. It might even be three first round picks that get it done.

When you find the guy, and he’s on his rookie contract, you can aggressively build out your roster. The Bills could potentially have five seasons to build around Josh Rosen or Baker Mayfield through the draft and free agency.